Hi everyone!
I'm en route to spend a few weeks with my brother in the beautiful state of Colorado. It's a long road trip when it's just me on my own, but the end result is worth it!
I want to tell you about an article that really struck me in today's New York Times. Apparently--and probably not surprisingly--there are more people in India than there are toilets. According to this article, the link to which I'll include below, in Mumbai alone there are 5,993 public toilets (with an additional 2,468 urinals) for men and only 3,536 for women. In these public toilets--which are filthy beyond belief--a male attendant collects anywhere from 2 to 5 rupees from customers in need of said facilities. The hitch though is that while men need to pay for the privilege of using a proper toilet, they can use the urinals at no charge. The same is obviously not true for women. Every time a woman needs to urinate, she must pay for the dubious privilege.
While it may not seem like a big deal for many of you reading this blog, when you consider the fact that many of the poorest people in India survive on as little as 29 rupees a day, 2 to 5 rupees paid out every time one needs to take care of one's natural functions really adds up. The article goes on to say that although women in Mumbai comprise half the city's workforce, many of these women do not have access to a toilet in their workplace. Thus, they are forced to use these public toilets and are getting ripped off in the process.
According to a recent article from the BBC, 35 non-government NGOs have organized around a campaign called--quite appropriately--the Right to Pee that in Mumbai alone has already collected 50,000 signatures by activists who have gone door-to-door as part of a movement to raise awareness about this ludicrous double standard. But more than this, the Right to Pee organization is charged with bringing attention to the need for improved sanitation, more and cleaner toilets, and the hiring of female attendants to look after the women's bathrooms. Mumbai city officials met with a select group of campaigners last week to discuss plans to build hundreds of new public toilets specifically for women all across the city. Whether this initiative reaches any sort of fruition in India's notoriously corrupt public sector remains to be seen. It is, however, a step (however small) in the right direction.
If nothing else, it further raises the point that despite its miraculous economic growth, the disparity between India's rich and poor remains staggering. The infrastructure--or lack thereof--as it exists now simply cannot hold.
I have looked for a website address for this campaign and was unable to find anything. I recently joined an online organization called Change.org wherein members can write and file petitions for or against any cause that matters to them. The petitions are posted on the Change.org site and anyone can affix their signature to it. Over the course of the next few days, I will be lending my voice to this Right to Pee campaign by drafting a petition on Change.org addressed to the appropriate Indian civic authorities in charge of public sanitation. Any and every human being has the right to clean, safe, sanitary, and FREE toilet facilities regardless of gender.
I will post on here the moment my petition is live and I will encourage you to share this link with everyone you know so we can get at least 100,000 online signatures. The Indian government must be held accountable by its citizens. My petition is only a small step, but it is a step and part of a much larger campaign.
In the meantime, please click below for the New York Times article.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/15/world/asia/in-mumbai-a-campaign-against-restroom-injustice.html?_r=1&pagewanted=all
Ciao.
Showing posts with label Mumbai. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Mumbai. Show all posts
Friday, June 15, 2012
Thursday, May 31, 2012
Book Review: Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death, and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity by Katherine Boo
Hi everyone!
I just finished reading an extraordinary book. Katherine Boo, a Pulitzer Prize-winning writer for the New Yorker, has written a beautifully rendered portrait of life in the Annawadi slum of Mumbai. Annawadi is a notorious slum that borders on the Mumbai international airport. Its 3,000 denizens live in a shanty community that is bordered on all sides by the luxuries and wealth of New India.. This is not your average non-fiction narrative detailing the horrendous poverty inherent to one of the world's most developing countries. Instead, Ms. Boo approaches her subject through the keenly focused lens of a storyteller. By focusing on the lives of two families and various other individuals that exist on their periphery, "Behind the Beautiful Forevers" provides an insightful and richly detailed account that never slips into sentimentality while maintaining a level of compassion and a narrative drive as finely wrought as the best in crime procedural fiction.
Muslim teenager Abdul is a garbage picker and his family's primary wage earner. His family is able to survive based on the money he brings in by sorting garbage and selling it to local recyclers. His mother, Zehrunisa, holds the family together with her wit, sharp tongue, and strong familial loyalty. Abdul's sister is recently divorced and has left her husband's family to live once again with her own people. Abdul's father is in poor health but dreams of finally moving out of the slum to a small plot of land on Mumbai's outskirts where he hopes he can one day raise his family (consisting of eleven children) in peace.
Unfortunately, a verbal altercation with a neighboring woman results in a self-immolation and a trial that threatens to destroy everything Abdul and his family have long fought for.
Add to this mix is Asha, a determined daughter of the slums, who uses corruption and sexual favors from powerful men to gain a foothold in the cadre of Annawadi's power-wielding elite; youngsters Sunil, Sonu, and Kalu, friends of Abdul's, who do what they can to stay ahead by relying on street smarts; Asha's daughter Manju, who runs an English class out of her home while hoping to pursue a university degree; and Meena, Manju's friend, who resorts to tragic action when she realizes she will never escape the slum.
"Behind the Beautiful Forevers" is a page-turner that is all the more compelling for being true. What prevails is an unadulterated portrait of the human spirit and an innate will to survive despite overwhelming odds. It also brings to life the struggles and challenges of a nation trying to overcome an historically caste-bound society where the division between the very rich and the very poor is epic and seemingly insurmountable. This is one the very best books ever written about India and one that should be required reading for anyone interested in learning about one of the world's fastest growing economies and the lengths people will go to in order to provide themselves and their families a better tomorrow.
I just finished reading an extraordinary book. Katherine Boo, a Pulitzer Prize-winning writer for the New Yorker, has written a beautifully rendered portrait of life in the Annawadi slum of Mumbai. Annawadi is a notorious slum that borders on the Mumbai international airport. Its 3,000 denizens live in a shanty community that is bordered on all sides by the luxuries and wealth of New India.. This is not your average non-fiction narrative detailing the horrendous poverty inherent to one of the world's most developing countries. Instead, Ms. Boo approaches her subject through the keenly focused lens of a storyteller. By focusing on the lives of two families and various other individuals that exist on their periphery, "Behind the Beautiful Forevers" provides an insightful and richly detailed account that never slips into sentimentality while maintaining a level of compassion and a narrative drive as finely wrought as the best in crime procedural fiction.
Muslim teenager Abdul is a garbage picker and his family's primary wage earner. His family is able to survive based on the money he brings in by sorting garbage and selling it to local recyclers. His mother, Zehrunisa, holds the family together with her wit, sharp tongue, and strong familial loyalty. Abdul's sister is recently divorced and has left her husband's family to live once again with her own people. Abdul's father is in poor health but dreams of finally moving out of the slum to a small plot of land on Mumbai's outskirts where he hopes he can one day raise his family (consisting of eleven children) in peace.
Unfortunately, a verbal altercation with a neighboring woman results in a self-immolation and a trial that threatens to destroy everything Abdul and his family have long fought for.
Add to this mix is Asha, a determined daughter of the slums, who uses corruption and sexual favors from powerful men to gain a foothold in the cadre of Annawadi's power-wielding elite; youngsters Sunil, Sonu, and Kalu, friends of Abdul's, who do what they can to stay ahead by relying on street smarts; Asha's daughter Manju, who runs an English class out of her home while hoping to pursue a university degree; and Meena, Manju's friend, who resorts to tragic action when she realizes she will never escape the slum.
"Behind the Beautiful Forevers" is a page-turner that is all the more compelling for being true. What prevails is an unadulterated portrait of the human spirit and an innate will to survive despite overwhelming odds. It also brings to life the struggles and challenges of a nation trying to overcome an historically caste-bound society where the division between the very rich and the very poor is epic and seemingly insurmountable. This is one the very best books ever written about India and one that should be required reading for anyone interested in learning about one of the world's fastest growing economies and the lengths people will go to in order to provide themselves and their families a better tomorrow.
Saturday, January 7, 2012
Saturday Book Review: Last Man in Tower by Aravind Adiga
Hi everyone!
I've decided to devote my Saturday and Sunday blogs to entertainment-related features. Saturdays will take the form of a book review, while Sundays will most likely consist of a movie or some other type of artistic review. Culture and the arts have always been a big part of my life and I kind of like the idea of taking some time off from political and current affairs analysis/discussion to focus on other passions.
I spent the bulk of this Saturday afternoon finishing British-Indian writer Aravind Adiga's latest novel, "Last Man in Tower." Mr. Adiga won the Man Booker Prize a few years ago for his novel "The White Tiger," which I own but have yet to make it past the first few pages. Based on "Last Man in Tower," however, I feel I am going to have to revisit the earlier novel because Mr. Adiga is quite the literary talent.
In brief, "Last Man in Tower" tells the story of the residents of Vishram Society Tower B on the outskirts of the vast Vakola slum in Mumbai, India. Dharmen Shah, an avuncular real estate developer whose glitzy high-rise building projects are devouring the Mumbai skyline, makes a generous offer to the inhabitants of Tower B to buy their flats for an extraordinary sum in order to raze the building to the ground for a new glamourous high-rise development. There is a hitch, however: the decision to accept Mr. Shah's offer has to be unanimous and has to accepted by a certain date or else the entire offer is rescinded.
Of course, Mr. Shah has no intention of being refused. He employs a certain Mr. Shanmugham, his "left-hand" man, to essentially strong-arm the residents of Vishram Society Tower B to accept his offer, using less than ethical tactics (bribery and extortion) to turn the residents against each other. An elderly, retired and respected schoolteacher and widower, "Masterji," ends up the last hold-out. Masterji is 'the last man in tower' and what happens to him as a result of his stubborn resistance to corporate corruption provides the basis of Mr. Adiga's novel.
"Last Man in Tower" is perhaps best described as an allegory. What happens within Vishram Tower B is no doubt representative of Indian society-at-large. The perspective is largely negative. Mr. Adiga is fairly ruthless in his portrayal of a society rife with corruption and violence, where life is cheap regardless of whether one lives in a shanty amidst desperate migrants in Vakola or a penthouse among Bollywood hotties in Bandra. The faintest whiff of money causes seemingly decent and protective mothers to smear excrement all over a neighbor's door or a young boy to beat up an elderly man in his own living room. People who have co-existed as neighbors in a more-or-less amiable fashion for decades suddenly turn on and inform upon each other and--ultimately--conspire to commit murder, all for the sake of a shot at a better life for themselves and their children.
Mr. Adiga's narrative voice is sharp. He is unstinting in his descriptions of the sights and smells of modern-day Mumbai. And while his characters often behave in ways that are objectionable at best and reprehensible at worst, the reader gets the feeling that he has a lot of affection for these people...as a result, the reader does as well.
As much as I enjoyed the novel (I read the last 100 or so pages in one sitting), I do think it could have been shortened by about 50 or so pages. I had more-or-less figured out what was going to happen before it happened and as a result I wasn't particularly shocked by the outcome. Still, Mr. Adiga's characters are so well-drawn and his descriptions so visceral, I couldn't help but turn the pages.
If you are looking for a fictional account of life in modern Mumbai...or are particularly drawn to stories that portray the shameless lengths people will go to for the sake of money, "Last Man in Tower" is a worthy investment of your time.
I've decided to devote my Saturday and Sunday blogs to entertainment-related features. Saturdays will take the form of a book review, while Sundays will most likely consist of a movie or some other type of artistic review. Culture and the arts have always been a big part of my life and I kind of like the idea of taking some time off from political and current affairs analysis/discussion to focus on other passions.
I spent the bulk of this Saturday afternoon finishing British-Indian writer Aravind Adiga's latest novel, "Last Man in Tower." Mr. Adiga won the Man Booker Prize a few years ago for his novel "The White Tiger," which I own but have yet to make it past the first few pages. Based on "Last Man in Tower," however, I feel I am going to have to revisit the earlier novel because Mr. Adiga is quite the literary talent.
In brief, "Last Man in Tower" tells the story of the residents of Vishram Society Tower B on the outskirts of the vast Vakola slum in Mumbai, India. Dharmen Shah, an avuncular real estate developer whose glitzy high-rise building projects are devouring the Mumbai skyline, makes a generous offer to the inhabitants of Tower B to buy their flats for an extraordinary sum in order to raze the building to the ground for a new glamourous high-rise development. There is a hitch, however: the decision to accept Mr. Shah's offer has to be unanimous and has to accepted by a certain date or else the entire offer is rescinded.
Of course, Mr. Shah has no intention of being refused. He employs a certain Mr. Shanmugham, his "left-hand" man, to essentially strong-arm the residents of Vishram Society Tower B to accept his offer, using less than ethical tactics (bribery and extortion) to turn the residents against each other. An elderly, retired and respected schoolteacher and widower, "Masterji," ends up the last hold-out. Masterji is 'the last man in tower' and what happens to him as a result of his stubborn resistance to corporate corruption provides the basis of Mr. Adiga's novel.
"Last Man in Tower" is perhaps best described as an allegory. What happens within Vishram Tower B is no doubt representative of Indian society-at-large. The perspective is largely negative. Mr. Adiga is fairly ruthless in his portrayal of a society rife with corruption and violence, where life is cheap regardless of whether one lives in a shanty amidst desperate migrants in Vakola or a penthouse among Bollywood hotties in Bandra. The faintest whiff of money causes seemingly decent and protective mothers to smear excrement all over a neighbor's door or a young boy to beat up an elderly man in his own living room. People who have co-existed as neighbors in a more-or-less amiable fashion for decades suddenly turn on and inform upon each other and--ultimately--conspire to commit murder, all for the sake of a shot at a better life for themselves and their children.
Mr. Adiga's narrative voice is sharp. He is unstinting in his descriptions of the sights and smells of modern-day Mumbai. And while his characters often behave in ways that are objectionable at best and reprehensible at worst, the reader gets the feeling that he has a lot of affection for these people...as a result, the reader does as well.
As much as I enjoyed the novel (I read the last 100 or so pages in one sitting), I do think it could have been shortened by about 50 or so pages. I had more-or-less figured out what was going to happen before it happened and as a result I wasn't particularly shocked by the outcome. Still, Mr. Adiga's characters are so well-drawn and his descriptions so visceral, I couldn't help but turn the pages.
If you are looking for a fictional account of life in modern Mumbai...or are particularly drawn to stories that portray the shameless lengths people will go to for the sake of money, "Last Man in Tower" is a worthy investment of your time.
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